me.andering – Willem van den Ende

Today, Marc Evers pointed me to Rehashing: Finale to Start-Up Life Lessons a long blog entry by Evelyn Rodriguez. It contains some interesting lessons on start-ups. I quote: Headlong into a free fall. Anxiety, worry, fear. And if you are an entrepreneur it would be invaluable to learn the skill of staying centered in the midst of seeming chaos and the unknown before your venture starts. That would be great. As I’m changing relations within an existing venture, and starting participation in a new one, I’m trying to avoid the rebound effect – I’m going to take some of the exact same risks I took the first time, for instance.

I’ve been rehashing a lot lately. I know it is not very useful, but it takes some effort to start “pre-hashing” so to say, thinking and acting towards the future. What helps me right now is writing (here or in my notebook), reading, talking to friends and going to conferences. Day by day, I’m experiencing and enjoying more about how the future wants to unfold

Having said that, I’m taking off for a an open space conference with fellow consultants in the French Alps, I’m curious what that will bring!

William Wake explains a simple protocol for getting unstuck in a development team: The Humble Yo. In the explanation is a nice story and some graphs showing why it is better to interrupt the whole team for a moment, than to remain stuck on your own (or with a pair-programmer).

Using an agreed-upon protocol has the effect that People don’t resent interruptions as much; they already gave permission for it. Another effect of agreeing on the protocol beforehand in my experience is that everyone on the team is aware that it is alright to admit you are stuck or don’t know the answer. This lowers the barrier to ask for help a lot. Asking for help takes courage, but works much better in the long run – I see it as an opportunity to invite the whole team to work together on a problem, which usually creates solutions none of the individuals could have invented themselves.